Melody
|health = |weapon = |item = |unlocking = Complete Zone 4 as Cadence |music = A_Rival }} Melody is Cadence's mother, revived by the Golden Lute. She's cursed with it, thus having to keep playing it for as long as necessary to stay alive. Because of that, the Lute is the only weapon she can use. To unlock her, you must defeat the Necrodancer as Cadence. Rules and Restrictions Melody starts with the Golden Lute, a weapon that cannot attack enemies directly, but deals 1 damage to all surrounding tiles whenever Melody moves. This damage can never be increased. Melody can never replace the Golden Lute with another weapon - attempting to do so will result in a death to "Cowardice". As a result of this, Melody cannot normally find any items or shrines related to weapons. This includes all Weapons, as well as the , , , , , , , , , , , and . In addition, she is also unable to find the , , or . Shrines of Blood and No Return do not spawn for her. As with any other weapon-locked character, all shops contain only two items instead of the usual three. Melody will always fight The Necrodancer 2 as her zone 4 boss. Strategy Items Melody's ability to damage multiple enemies while moving makes her extremely powerful at dispatching large groups of enemies on the run, offsetting her inability to increase her damage. She is most powerful when she has plenty of space to move - this makes the , , and extremely desirable for her (except when playing for score). The Golden Lute's largest drawbacks are its low damage and inability to attack enemies directly. Items such as (ideally with the ), Fireball (Spell or Scroll), , and can be used for extra bursts of damage to close-up enemies. These items, as well as the and , also double as an option should Melody ever become fully surrounded by enemies - a situation which would otherwise render her completely unable to retaliate. Finding armor quickly is recommended to offset her low health pool. This is made much easier by the removal of all weapon-related items from her item pool, leaving boots and armor as the only possible items to be found in black chests. Attaining a Flawless Victory against a boss will guarantee either , , or if the black chest is taken. Spells (especially with or ) will also recharge very quickly for Melody, as the Lute tends to quickly rack up large amounts of kills with little effort. With and , it's very feasible for Melody to be able to clear entire zones without ever allowing enemies to thaw. Combat As long as Melody keeps moving, most enemies will have a hard time harming her. For this reason, large open areas are vastly preferred over narrow hallways and choke-points. Most weaker enemies will die with very minimal effort and can be safely ignored, provided care is taken to never waste a beat of movement by bumping directly into one. Melody should take care when fighting enemies with unorthodox movement patterns or high health to make sure not to accidentally bump into them. Melody's biggest threats by far, however, are enemies that retaliate on damage, such as Explosive Mushrooms, Goblin Bombers, Pixies, Warlocks, and Ooze Golems. Situations in which Melody is forced to damage these are very common, which can result in sudden unexpected negative effects. Note that movement caused by enemies or environmental hazards (including wind spells, shoves, bounce traps, and ice, but not teleports) still cause the Golden Lute to deal damage, making these hazards much less threatening for Melody compared to other characters. Trivia * While the Glass Jaw and Blood Drum are removed from Melody's item pool, they can still be obtained by killing the Glass Shopkeeper and Blood Shopkeeper, respectively. Glass Jaw can also be obtained by using a Shrine of Glass with a headpiece equipped, though this is not recommended. Glass Jaw will only increase damage dealt to monkeys after they have latched onto the player. * A bug will sometimes result in a Blunderbuss being spawned when the Transmute spell is used. As mentioned earlier, attempting to pick it up will result in instant death to Cowardice. * A melody, from the greek word ''melōidía, ''meaning singing or chanting, is a linear sequence of notes that are the main focus of music. Category:Playable Character